"Very diplomatic," Mai noted as fire hurtled towards them from a half-dozen of the angrier looking firebenders. She watched
impassively as the flames guttered away before reaching them. "Good reaction."
"That wasn't me," Toph said bluntly. "There's something happening to their firebending." She paused. "And
mine, I think. Something bad."
Mai nodded and stepped forwards to look out of the door where more than twenty sun warriors were trying to force fire from their hands.
"So I see," she said, and then her composure cracked as she glanced up at the sky. "Oh Spirits."
"What?"
"The Day of the Black Sun," Mai whispered. "It's happening again!"
"That... doesn't explain anything," complained Toph, joining her sister at the doorway. "Although I guess by their abject
panic, we aren't going to be talking to you guys?" she asked the nearest of the sun warriors, the one who had shouted led the attack.
"Die, outsider!" he shouted, and tried to grab hold of her.
A pillar of rock smashed up from the ground and hurled him back. "No," Toph replied dismissively.
The blackness had consumed almost a fifth of the sun. Mai forced her attention away from it and reached into her dress, pulling out a whistle
that the bison herders of the Water Tribe had given to her. "Don't try anything," she warned the fire benders, holding the knife in her other
hand to remind them that without their fire bending she and Toph were the only ones armed. She blew into the whistle, creating no sound that she could detect
although annoyance flickered across Toph's face as her sharper ears picked up a sound right on the edge of her ability to hear it.
"It's a solar eclipse," Mai explained hurriedly. "For fire benders it's the worst possible omen. We'd better leave
and come back when it's all over and they've calmed down."
Above this conversation, the spot of light above the doorway faded as the sunlight being focused upon it was no longer sufficient and the
stone doors responded by closing up behind the two girls.
"Over?" Ham Ghao shouted as he scrambled to his feet. "Your meddling with the sunstone is destroying the sun,
outsider!"
"Not if this is the Black Sun," his Chief corrected him grimly, stepping forwards. "Such has happened before and the sun has
always recovered swiftly. Which does not explain why the two of you were inside the sanctuary. It's clear from your clothes that you are from the southern
cities."
Mai relaxed slightly as reason seemed to be breaking out. It seemed lighter as well, the sun not having shrunk any further.
"We came from there, anyway," Toph admitted. "As for being in there, it seemed as good a place as any to wait until your
ceremony was over. We didn't know -"
There was a mighty bellow from above and M Bison plunged down onto the little plaza, diving out of the sun in response to Mai's earlier
whistle. Unfortunately for all concerned, this resulted in him landing directly in front of Mai and Toph... more or less on top of the sun warrior's
chieftain, who was bowled over and left stunned on the ground.
In fairness to Ham Ghao, it wasn't him who screamed: "It's a monster!" In reflex however, he did try to bend fire at the
new arrival and to his delight sparks responded. Up in the sky, the darkness that had touched the sun was now moving away from it, never having covered more
than a quarter of the disc, and his fire bending was returning.
"Drive the beast away!" the sun warrior shouted, "Capture the intruders!" And absent any other idea of what to do, the
rest of the celebrants obeyed, hurling what little flame they could manage at the bison, setting fire to his fur. Annoyed, but not yet hurt M Bison whirled
upon them, not waiting for the girls to climb aboard him and threw himself into a short climb that scattered the greatest bulk of his tormenters, flinging
several of them down to the next level of the pyramid with bonecracking force.
Mai groaned. "They made him angry," she complained, fanning throwing knives between her fingers.
"Let's just try not to kill anyone," Toph suggested. "Maybe we can still sort this out."
Her sister looked at the sun warriors, now hurling fire with abandon as the sun resumed it's full strength, and then at M Bison, who was
roaring down on another cluster of the sun warriors. "Sometimes I really wish you could see what you're talking about," she said, putting her
knives away and producing her war fans in time to deflect a punch which was thrown at her by one of the more muscular sun warriors. Bringing up the other fan
she managed to sweep the man off balance and hurl him face first into the wall beside her.
The sun warrior rebounded off, blood spilling from his face. Not killing anyone still left her with a considerable scope for
mayhem.
Toph raised up a wall to deflect fire being directed at her. "I don't think I want them getting reinforcements up here," she
decided and gestured towards the steps. With a crunch, the stairs tilted to form a steep slope and there were startled cries and yells of pain as a half-dozen
men trying to make their way up it tumbled back to the next level.
Ham Ghao gestured for two of the other sun warriors to flank him as he forced his flames to concentrate to greater heat. "Ha!" he
shouted, driving his hands forward and sending a fiery column up at the rampaging mass of M Bison. Unlike the previous attacks, between the sun being uncovered
and Ham Ghao's concentration, this was enough to cause more than incidental scorching to the sky bison and he roared in pain... and even more
anger.
"Wow. I didn't realise that he could actually get angrier," Toph said calmly as she sank a pair of sun warriors almost knee
deep in the stone slabs.
"Just get out of the way!" snapped Mai and pressed herself back against the wall as M Bison barrel-rolled across the plaza still on
fire. Ham Ghao and his companions were swept aside easily and then the aggressive sky bison turned around for another pass. The fire benders seemed to be
somewhat at a loss as to what to do about this: he was already on fire, what more could they do?
The sun warrior Chief, spared because he was already on the ground, crawled towards the wall, not far from Mai and Toph. "If that is
your creature, then call him off!" he demanded.
"He'll calm down in a while," Toph said and reached out with both hands for a moment before drawing them suddenly backwards,
the flames leaping away from M Bison's fur - which was now noticeably darker and thinner than before - and coalescing into a globe between her hands.
"I'd suggest having your people play dead until he does." She hurled the fire out over the city, causing it to burst like fireworks.
"You're a fire bender?" he gasped. "But..." His eyes looked at where two of his warriors were lying on their backs,
unable to flee due to their feet and calves being embedded in the paving. "The Avatar!"
Toph smirked. "Yep. I didn't come here to fight you guys." There was a howl from the level below and M Bison swooped up above
the lip of the plaza with a triumphant bellow. "...although I guess that he did."
The Chief glared at her and then raised his voice. "Everyone lay on the floor and play dead until the beast has calmed!" he
shouted, his words laced with such authority that not even Ham Ghao, then clinging desperately to the lip of the plaza, a long if not sheer drop to the level
below all that awaited him if he released his grip, was inclined to argue. "Even if you are the Avatar, you have no right to interfere in our
customs," the man told Toph.
"That was never our intention," Mai told him. "Toph and I came here seeking a fire bending teacher. Her previous instructor
proved unsuitable, so we were seeking remnants of the ancient sun warriors. With the extinction of the dragons, their knowledge of fire bending would be the
purest remaining source of the art."
He stared at her for a moment, then around at M Bison, currently floating in the air and looking around angrily for prey. "Do you have
this effect everywhere you travel?"
Mai shook her head, not in disagreement but in sympathy. "You have no idea."
.oOo.
In the end it took most of the day to settlee M Bison and he was still hufffing irritably towards any sun warriors who came into view when
the sun set over the jungle. Most of said men and women found this a reasonable justification to stay clear of where Toph and Mai had relocated their campsite
to: a space between two buildings across one of the ruined highways of the city from the buildings occupied by the sun warriors during their residence in the
home of their ancestors. It was clear, however, that the distance would have been maintained regardless.
It was also clear that the buildings were effectively a campsite, albeit a regular one. There were no children in the little settlement, and
very few married women. Wherever the true home of the sun warriors was, it was not something that any of them would share and while some of the tribe were
relatively affable, Mai knew without Toph telling her that this was a veneer over deeper suspicion.
"I'd say we made a bad first impression," Toph observed quietly as she helped to groom M Bison, carefully removing damaged hair
that would otherwise tangle unpleasently as it grew out.
"Your powers of deduction are growing," said Mai, deliberately not softening the sting of her words by adding 'little
sister'. "I suppose we should have realised that the room would be considered important. Then again, I'm not sure if they wouldn't have
reacted as badly to our presence outside the pyramid, given the eclipse."
"Yes, and what was that?" asked Toph. "They seemed to think that the sun was dying."
Mai swallowed. The sun was important to the Fire Nation, even to those who did not bend fire. "It looked very much like that," she
explained. "A blackness, somewhat like a shadow, crossed over the sun, blocking part of its light."
Toph nodded her head, sending her bangs sflapping over her eyes. "Okay, so that's why I couldn't say anything. And because it
affects firebending it's considered unfortunate?"
"Unfortunate doesn't cover it," her sister told her. "This was merely a partial eclipse, lasting a moment or two. On the
Day of the Black Sun the eclipse was total and lasted several minutes longer, covering might of the Fire Nation. Long enough to turn the tides of empire if
those moments were as fatefully timed as they were then."
The younger girl did not pause in her grooming but her lips pursed as she combed through her memory of history lessons, limited somewhat by
the fact that she could not study scrolls herself but only work by what was read to her. "How long ago was it?"
"A little over six and a half centuries," Mai told her and let the girl work out the timing for herself.
It only took a moment: "The fall of the Dragon Princes."
"Precisely," agreed Mai. "No one remembers now if the timing was deliberate, opportunism or sheer mischance that the uprisings
began that day, but at least a dozen of the princely strongholds were under attack when the sun failed. Thousands of firebenders were killed, unable to defend
their princes, and the resultant power struggles almost tore the Fire Nation apart. It took the combined efforts of the Avatar Xatlan and the Order of the Fire
Sages to end the wars and most of a hundred years for my people to recover. According to some of my teachers, there are parts of the ancient firebending lore
that were lost forever."
"Although..." Toph said thoughtfully. "The sun warriors predate that, so maybe they can fill some of those gaps. Surely
someone came looking for you before now," she added, turning to look at the Chief as he crossed the street towards them.
"They did," he agreed coolly. "The Masters read their hearts, their souls... Those they judged as being unworthy - likely, for
example, to advertise our survival here - were destroyed. Those who they spared either kept our secrets, or simply remained here. By all accounts as happily as
they would have anywhere else."
Mai tilted her head to one side. "The Masters?"
He nodded confirmation. "In the morning, we will take you both before them. If you are worthy, then they will teach you that which you
will need. If not..." He shrugged. "In any event, it's rather too late for you to turn back at this point."
.oOo.
Somewhat before the crack of dawn the next day, a rather sleepy Toph - who had stayed up entirely too late trying to figure out where the
Masters were - followed Mai towards a shrine on top of one of the smaller pyramids scattered around the ruined city. The two of them were surrounded by dozens
of sun warriors, under the direction of Ham Ghao. Pragmatically speaking, Mai was fairly sure that they could have hopped onto M Bison at any point and just
left...
But what would that have accomplished?
An archway at the centre of the shrine was occupied almost entirely by a smokeless fire. Mai had noticed that one of the buildings near the
foot of the pyramid showed more sign of habitation than the camp - presumably for attendant to the shrine.
"This is the eternal flame," the Chief instructed them - as much for the benefit of the warriors around the two girls as for them.
"The first fire given to man by the dragons, we have kept it alight for thousands of years."
He beckoned to the girls, who stepped forward. "All who go to meet the Masters carry with them a part of it, to show their commitment to
the sacred art of firebending."
Mai cleared her throat. "I'm not a firebender," she pointed out. "I don't suppose that you have a lantern or something
I can use to carry it?"
"No."
"Oh."
The sun chief refrained from smirking as he turned towards the flame and drew a modest globe of fire forth, dividing it between his two
hands. "This ritual illustrates the essence of sun warrior philosophy. You must maintain a constant heat. The flame will go out if you make it too small
but make it too big and you might lose control." The firebender held out his hands towards the two of them.
Toph extended her own hand unerringly and the chief placed one flame into the girl's small hands. Almost immediately she giggled.
"It tickles," she said in a surprised voice. "Almost like... like it's alive."
"Fire is life," asserted the man. "Not just destruction." He turned his gaze towards Mai, who warily extended
her own hands towards the flame, bracing herself to be scorched when the Chief released his control over it.
To her surprise the fire did not explode when the firebender removed his hand, nor even fall upon her fingers. Instead it simply remained
hovering above her hands, fading slowly until it had reduced itself to nothing.
"That," said a caustic voice from behind them - Ham Ghao's, Mai recognised - "Was a bad start."
"Those are keen powers of observation that you have, Ham Ghao," she said, not looking back. "And also a very large
mouth."
There was a ripple of amusement from the other sun warriors and even the Chief's expression softened slightly. "You must now take
the fire to the cave of the Masters, beneath that rock." He pointed at where a hill reared up outside the city, capped by two mis-matched fangs of
stone.
"Come on Spiky," Toph said, turning towards the stair down the pyramid. "I'll share my fire when we get
there."
The Chief and Ham Ghao exchanged looks as the two girls descended.
"A very bad start," Ham Ghao conluded. His chief shrugged noncomittally.
.oOo.
"Are you alright?" Mai asked as Toph paused at one of the tougher patches of the hill to climb. The younger girl was frowning at
nothing in particular - her blindness giving her little reason to point her face in the direction of whatever was irritating her.
Toph didn't reply at first, instead shifting her feet in a awkward rendition of her usual earthbending. The ground shuddered and then
shifted grudgingly into a stair over the obstacle. At the same time, the flame in her hand flickered alarmingly. "Earth bending while I'm fire bending
is harder than I expected," she admitted once the fire in her had had steadied.
"Well its impossible for the anyone else, little sister," Mai pointed out. "We're going to have to add that to your
training. It's all very well being able to bend all four elements, but if you can't use them all at once then you'd be no better than a mixed squad
of benders."
"Hey!"
Mai smiled slightly. "Which would be unacceptable, of course."
"Of course," Toph agreed, perfectly aware of Mai manuevering the situation and playing along. "I'm sure that fitting it in
between the firebending lessons from these Masters, practising water bending on liquid water, trying to learn air bending from scrolls I can't read and
keeping my earth bending up to scratch... all that will be easy!"
"That's a great idea," Mai agreed drily. "Where do you want to begin?"
"Earth bending while fire bending, of course," declared Toph and started to force a path into existence up the hill, the fire
crackling in her hand as she wound the path back and forth up the slope, creating a slow and easy route. It wasn't as if they were in a hurry, after
all.
As a result of the slow and sometimes circuitous route that the two took, the sun was low in the sky by the time that they came around a low
hillock between them and the twin peaks and found that most of the sun warriors had beaten them there.
"Finally," muttered Ham Ghao, probably louder than he intended, from behind the Chief. Now unmasked by the terrain, Mai could see a
high bridge connecting the two peaks to a broad pillar. A broad, steep stair of stone descended from the top of the pillar to an elaborately paved court where
the sun warriors were standing. The sun was just descending behind the bridge, casting long shadows towards them.
"Facing the judgement of the fire bending masters will be dangerous for you," the Chief warned Mai. "It is very rare for
anyone not a fire bender to come this far. Also, the decline of the dragons is the work of the Fire Nation, and anyone can see that you are of their
ancestry." He turned towards Toph. "That your predecessors did not protect the dragons may also displease them."
Toph shrugged. "I met a dragon in the spirit world," she told him. "He gave me a headache."
The Chief seemed unsure what to say about that. Instead he raised his ceremonial spear (which was capped by an ornamental golden flame motif
that would probably be of little use doing anything more that herding leopard goats... baby leopard goats at that) and brought the butt down sharpy, jamming it
into a small hole in the paving. Reaching out he took part of the flame from Toph and used his own chi to strength it before dividing it in two. Ham Ghao and
the other sun warrior flanking the chief reached out and took the flames from his outstretched hands.
Around the paving, the sun warriors spread out into a circle, passing the fire one to another. Alternate members of the tribe retained enough
to spark fiery circles that they held in front of them, while those between them knelt and began to beat upon drums, sending up a simple but evocative beat as
the three sun warriors before Mai and Toph led them to the bottom of the stair.
"Are you afraid, little one?" Ham Ghao asked under his breath as Toph walked past him. Mai winced internally at the thought of Toph
breaking up such a clearly important ceremony to take sudden revenge for the insulting query, but instead of breaking into a destructive earth bending move,
the younger girl seemed to ignore him completely and started to walking up the stairs beside her sister. After months of travel, the taller Mai didn't have
to think about adjusting her pace to Toph's shorter legs.
"That was very mature of you," she said quietly once they were above easy earshot of the sun warriors.
Toph smiled broadly. "Earth benders know all about waiting for the right moment," she said just as quietly. "And that
wasn't the right moment." Unspoken: that moment would come and be damned to any threat at the top of the steps.
Someone less disciplined than Mai would have grinned. This was getting interesting.
As the two stepped from the stair onto the top of the pillar, the drums stopped suddenly. The platform that the pillar created was somewhat
wider than the bridge extending in either direction. Speaking through a huge curved horn - the size of a sungi horn, Mai thought - a booming voice from the
circle of sun warriors announced: "Those who wish to meet the Masters Ran and Shao shall now present their fire."
Toph touched the flames she carried to the cloak she was wearing and the front of the material lit immediately. Mai's eyes went wide and
she snatched the garment off Toph's shoulders, almost tearing it as she yanked it out of the young Avatar's belt.
"I was going to give you it anyway," Toph told her drily and turned to her left, facing along the bridge and holding out what
remained of the fire, drawing upon her chi to restore it to its previous size. She could feel a cave at each end. Presumably the Masters would emerge from the
openings. Mai sighed heavily and held out the bundled garment, fire rising from it, in the opposite direction.
"Sound the call!" roared the chief, clearly audible even without a speaking horn.
Some short distance from the court, a lone sun warrior placed his mouth to a twisted horn, so long that it had to be rested upon the floor,
and sounded it, a deep sound that shook stones from the surfaces of the two peaks either side of the bridge.
"I felt that," Toph growled. Then her eyes went wide. "Oma..." she whispered as she felt something truly massive moving
beneath the two peaks.
"Do I want to know?"
"Whether you want to or not, you're about to find out," Toph told her.
Toph couldn't see the yellow eyes gleamed in warning before one of the Masters emerged but she could easily hear the hissing snarl as a
gigantic red dragon shot out of the cave in front of her, only bending off at the last minute to start circling about the two girls. The dragon was so huge
that even circling so widely that it almost brushed both peaks, it was quite literally chasing its own tail.
There was a second rush of air as another dragon, this one blue, emerged from the other peak and began circling.
"Oh. Dragons."
Toph was momentarily more impressed with her big sister's sang froid than she was by the dragons.
D for Drakensis
You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.
impassively as the flames guttered away before reaching them. "Good reaction."
"That wasn't me," Toph said bluntly. "There's something happening to their firebending." She paused. "And
mine, I think. Something bad."
Mai nodded and stepped forwards to look out of the door where more than twenty sun warriors were trying to force fire from their hands.
"So I see," she said, and then her composure cracked as she glanced up at the sky. "Oh Spirits."
"What?"
"The Day of the Black Sun," Mai whispered. "It's happening again!"
"That... doesn't explain anything," complained Toph, joining her sister at the doorway. "Although I guess by their abject
panic, we aren't going to be talking to you guys?" she asked the nearest of the sun warriors, the one who had shouted led the attack.
"Die, outsider!" he shouted, and tried to grab hold of her.
A pillar of rock smashed up from the ground and hurled him back. "No," Toph replied dismissively.
The blackness had consumed almost a fifth of the sun. Mai forced her attention away from it and reached into her dress, pulling out a whistle
that the bison herders of the Water Tribe had given to her. "Don't try anything," she warned the fire benders, holding the knife in her other
hand to remind them that without their fire bending she and Toph were the only ones armed. She blew into the whistle, creating no sound that she could detect
although annoyance flickered across Toph's face as her sharper ears picked up a sound right on the edge of her ability to hear it.
"It's a solar eclipse," Mai explained hurriedly. "For fire benders it's the worst possible omen. We'd better leave
and come back when it's all over and they've calmed down."
Above this conversation, the spot of light above the doorway faded as the sunlight being focused upon it was no longer sufficient and the
stone doors responded by closing up behind the two girls.
"Over?" Ham Ghao shouted as he scrambled to his feet. "Your meddling with the sunstone is destroying the sun,
outsider!"
"Not if this is the Black Sun," his Chief corrected him grimly, stepping forwards. "Such has happened before and the sun has
always recovered swiftly. Which does not explain why the two of you were inside the sanctuary. It's clear from your clothes that you are from the southern
cities."
Mai relaxed slightly as reason seemed to be breaking out. It seemed lighter as well, the sun not having shrunk any further.
"We came from there, anyway," Toph admitted. "As for being in there, it seemed as good a place as any to wait until your
ceremony was over. We didn't know -"
There was a mighty bellow from above and M Bison plunged down onto the little plaza, diving out of the sun in response to Mai's earlier
whistle. Unfortunately for all concerned, this resulted in him landing directly in front of Mai and Toph... more or less on top of the sun warrior's
chieftain, who was bowled over and left stunned on the ground.
In fairness to Ham Ghao, it wasn't him who screamed: "It's a monster!" In reflex however, he did try to bend fire at the
new arrival and to his delight sparks responded. Up in the sky, the darkness that had touched the sun was now moving away from it, never having covered more
than a quarter of the disc, and his fire bending was returning.
"Drive the beast away!" the sun warrior shouted, "Capture the intruders!" And absent any other idea of what to do, the
rest of the celebrants obeyed, hurling what little flame they could manage at the bison, setting fire to his fur. Annoyed, but not yet hurt M Bison whirled
upon them, not waiting for the girls to climb aboard him and threw himself into a short climb that scattered the greatest bulk of his tormenters, flinging
several of them down to the next level of the pyramid with bonecracking force.
Mai groaned. "They made him angry," she complained, fanning throwing knives between her fingers.
"Let's just try not to kill anyone," Toph suggested. "Maybe we can still sort this out."
Her sister looked at the sun warriors, now hurling fire with abandon as the sun resumed it's full strength, and then at M Bison, who was
roaring down on another cluster of the sun warriors. "Sometimes I really wish you could see what you're talking about," she said, putting her
knives away and producing her war fans in time to deflect a punch which was thrown at her by one of the more muscular sun warriors. Bringing up the other fan
she managed to sweep the man off balance and hurl him face first into the wall beside her.
The sun warrior rebounded off, blood spilling from his face. Not killing anyone still left her with a considerable scope for
mayhem.
Toph raised up a wall to deflect fire being directed at her. "I don't think I want them getting reinforcements up here," she
decided and gestured towards the steps. With a crunch, the stairs tilted to form a steep slope and there were startled cries and yells of pain as a half-dozen
men trying to make their way up it tumbled back to the next level.
Ham Ghao gestured for two of the other sun warriors to flank him as he forced his flames to concentrate to greater heat. "Ha!" he
shouted, driving his hands forward and sending a fiery column up at the rampaging mass of M Bison. Unlike the previous attacks, between the sun being uncovered
and Ham Ghao's concentration, this was enough to cause more than incidental scorching to the sky bison and he roared in pain... and even more
anger.
"Wow. I didn't realise that he could actually get angrier," Toph said calmly as she sank a pair of sun warriors almost knee
deep in the stone slabs.
"Just get out of the way!" snapped Mai and pressed herself back against the wall as M Bison barrel-rolled across the plaza still on
fire. Ham Ghao and his companions were swept aside easily and then the aggressive sky bison turned around for another pass. The fire benders seemed to be
somewhat at a loss as to what to do about this: he was already on fire, what more could they do?
The sun warrior Chief, spared because he was already on the ground, crawled towards the wall, not far from Mai and Toph. "If that is
your creature, then call him off!" he demanded.
"He'll calm down in a while," Toph said and reached out with both hands for a moment before drawing them suddenly backwards,
the flames leaping away from M Bison's fur - which was now noticeably darker and thinner than before - and coalescing into a globe between her hands.
"I'd suggest having your people play dead until he does." She hurled the fire out over the city, causing it to burst like fireworks.
"You're a fire bender?" he gasped. "But..." His eyes looked at where two of his warriors were lying on their backs,
unable to flee due to their feet and calves being embedded in the paving. "The Avatar!"
Toph smirked. "Yep. I didn't come here to fight you guys." There was a howl from the level below and M Bison swooped up above
the lip of the plaza with a triumphant bellow. "...although I guess that he did."
The Chief glared at her and then raised his voice. "Everyone lay on the floor and play dead until the beast has calmed!" he
shouted, his words laced with such authority that not even Ham Ghao, then clinging desperately to the lip of the plaza, a long if not sheer drop to the level
below all that awaited him if he released his grip, was inclined to argue. "Even if you are the Avatar, you have no right to interfere in our
customs," the man told Toph.
"That was never our intention," Mai told him. "Toph and I came here seeking a fire bending teacher. Her previous instructor
proved unsuitable, so we were seeking remnants of the ancient sun warriors. With the extinction of the dragons, their knowledge of fire bending would be the
purest remaining source of the art."
He stared at her for a moment, then around at M Bison, currently floating in the air and looking around angrily for prey. "Do you have
this effect everywhere you travel?"
Mai shook her head, not in disagreement but in sympathy. "You have no idea."
.oOo.
In the end it took most of the day to settlee M Bison and he was still hufffing irritably towards any sun warriors who came into view when
the sun set over the jungle. Most of said men and women found this a reasonable justification to stay clear of where Toph and Mai had relocated their campsite
to: a space between two buildings across one of the ruined highways of the city from the buildings occupied by the sun warriors during their residence in the
home of their ancestors. It was clear, however, that the distance would have been maintained regardless.
It was also clear that the buildings were effectively a campsite, albeit a regular one. There were no children in the little settlement, and
very few married women. Wherever the true home of the sun warriors was, it was not something that any of them would share and while some of the tribe were
relatively affable, Mai knew without Toph telling her that this was a veneer over deeper suspicion.
"I'd say we made a bad first impression," Toph observed quietly as she helped to groom M Bison, carefully removing damaged hair
that would otherwise tangle unpleasently as it grew out.
"Your powers of deduction are growing," said Mai, deliberately not softening the sting of her words by adding 'little
sister'. "I suppose we should have realised that the room would be considered important. Then again, I'm not sure if they wouldn't have
reacted as badly to our presence outside the pyramid, given the eclipse."
"Yes, and what was that?" asked Toph. "They seemed to think that the sun was dying."
Mai swallowed. The sun was important to the Fire Nation, even to those who did not bend fire. "It looked very much like that," she
explained. "A blackness, somewhat like a shadow, crossed over the sun, blocking part of its light."
Toph nodded her head, sending her bangs sflapping over her eyes. "Okay, so that's why I couldn't say anything. And because it
affects firebending it's considered unfortunate?"
"Unfortunate doesn't cover it," her sister told her. "This was merely a partial eclipse, lasting a moment or two. On the
Day of the Black Sun the eclipse was total and lasted several minutes longer, covering might of the Fire Nation. Long enough to turn the tides of empire if
those moments were as fatefully timed as they were then."
The younger girl did not pause in her grooming but her lips pursed as she combed through her memory of history lessons, limited somewhat by
the fact that she could not study scrolls herself but only work by what was read to her. "How long ago was it?"
"A little over six and a half centuries," Mai told her and let the girl work out the timing for herself.
It only took a moment: "The fall of the Dragon Princes."
"Precisely," agreed Mai. "No one remembers now if the timing was deliberate, opportunism or sheer mischance that the uprisings
began that day, but at least a dozen of the princely strongholds were under attack when the sun failed. Thousands of firebenders were killed, unable to defend
their princes, and the resultant power struggles almost tore the Fire Nation apart. It took the combined efforts of the Avatar Xatlan and the Order of the Fire
Sages to end the wars and most of a hundred years for my people to recover. According to some of my teachers, there are parts of the ancient firebending lore
that were lost forever."
"Although..." Toph said thoughtfully. "The sun warriors predate that, so maybe they can fill some of those gaps. Surely
someone came looking for you before now," she added, turning to look at the Chief as he crossed the street towards them.
"They did," he agreed coolly. "The Masters read their hearts, their souls... Those they judged as being unworthy - likely, for
example, to advertise our survival here - were destroyed. Those who they spared either kept our secrets, or simply remained here. By all accounts as happily as
they would have anywhere else."
Mai tilted her head to one side. "The Masters?"
He nodded confirmation. "In the morning, we will take you both before them. If you are worthy, then they will teach you that which you
will need. If not..." He shrugged. "In any event, it's rather too late for you to turn back at this point."
.oOo.
Somewhat before the crack of dawn the next day, a rather sleepy Toph - who had stayed up entirely too late trying to figure out where the
Masters were - followed Mai towards a shrine on top of one of the smaller pyramids scattered around the ruined city. The two of them were surrounded by dozens
of sun warriors, under the direction of Ham Ghao. Pragmatically speaking, Mai was fairly sure that they could have hopped onto M Bison at any point and just
left...
But what would that have accomplished?
An archway at the centre of the shrine was occupied almost entirely by a smokeless fire. Mai had noticed that one of the buildings near the
foot of the pyramid showed more sign of habitation than the camp - presumably for attendant to the shrine.
"This is the eternal flame," the Chief instructed them - as much for the benefit of the warriors around the two girls as for them.
"The first fire given to man by the dragons, we have kept it alight for thousands of years."
He beckoned to the girls, who stepped forward. "All who go to meet the Masters carry with them a part of it, to show their commitment to
the sacred art of firebending."
Mai cleared her throat. "I'm not a firebender," she pointed out. "I don't suppose that you have a lantern or something
I can use to carry it?"
"No."
"Oh."
The sun chief refrained from smirking as he turned towards the flame and drew a modest globe of fire forth, dividing it between his two
hands. "This ritual illustrates the essence of sun warrior philosophy. You must maintain a constant heat. The flame will go out if you make it too small
but make it too big and you might lose control." The firebender held out his hands towards the two of them.
Toph extended her own hand unerringly and the chief placed one flame into the girl's small hands. Almost immediately she giggled.
"It tickles," she said in a surprised voice. "Almost like... like it's alive."
"Fire is life," asserted the man. "Not just destruction." He turned his gaze towards Mai, who warily extended
her own hands towards the flame, bracing herself to be scorched when the Chief released his control over it.
To her surprise the fire did not explode when the firebender removed his hand, nor even fall upon her fingers. Instead it simply remained
hovering above her hands, fading slowly until it had reduced itself to nothing.
"That," said a caustic voice from behind them - Ham Ghao's, Mai recognised - "Was a bad start."
"Those are keen powers of observation that you have, Ham Ghao," she said, not looking back. "And also a very large
mouth."
There was a ripple of amusement from the other sun warriors and even the Chief's expression softened slightly. "You must now take
the fire to the cave of the Masters, beneath that rock." He pointed at where a hill reared up outside the city, capped by two mis-matched fangs of
stone.
"Come on Spiky," Toph said, turning towards the stair down the pyramid. "I'll share my fire when we get
there."
The Chief and Ham Ghao exchanged looks as the two girls descended.
"A very bad start," Ham Ghao conluded. His chief shrugged noncomittally.
.oOo.
"Are you alright?" Mai asked as Toph paused at one of the tougher patches of the hill to climb. The younger girl was frowning at
nothing in particular - her blindness giving her little reason to point her face in the direction of whatever was irritating her.
Toph didn't reply at first, instead shifting her feet in a awkward rendition of her usual earthbending. The ground shuddered and then
shifted grudgingly into a stair over the obstacle. At the same time, the flame in her hand flickered alarmingly. "Earth bending while I'm fire bending
is harder than I expected," she admitted once the fire in her had had steadied.
"Well its impossible for the anyone else, little sister," Mai pointed out. "We're going to have to add that to your
training. It's all very well being able to bend all four elements, but if you can't use them all at once then you'd be no better than a mixed squad
of benders."
"Hey!"
Mai smiled slightly. "Which would be unacceptable, of course."
"Of course," Toph agreed, perfectly aware of Mai manuevering the situation and playing along. "I'm sure that fitting it in
between the firebending lessons from these Masters, practising water bending on liquid water, trying to learn air bending from scrolls I can't read and
keeping my earth bending up to scratch... all that will be easy!"
"That's a great idea," Mai agreed drily. "Where do you want to begin?"
"Earth bending while fire bending, of course," declared Toph and started to force a path into existence up the hill, the fire
crackling in her hand as she wound the path back and forth up the slope, creating a slow and easy route. It wasn't as if they were in a hurry, after
all.
As a result of the slow and sometimes circuitous route that the two took, the sun was low in the sky by the time that they came around a low
hillock between them and the twin peaks and found that most of the sun warriors had beaten them there.
"Finally," muttered Ham Ghao, probably louder than he intended, from behind the Chief. Now unmasked by the terrain, Mai could see a
high bridge connecting the two peaks to a broad pillar. A broad, steep stair of stone descended from the top of the pillar to an elaborately paved court where
the sun warriors were standing. The sun was just descending behind the bridge, casting long shadows towards them.
"Facing the judgement of the fire bending masters will be dangerous for you," the Chief warned Mai. "It is very rare for
anyone not a fire bender to come this far. Also, the decline of the dragons is the work of the Fire Nation, and anyone can see that you are of their
ancestry." He turned towards Toph. "That your predecessors did not protect the dragons may also displease them."
Toph shrugged. "I met a dragon in the spirit world," she told him. "He gave me a headache."
The Chief seemed unsure what to say about that. Instead he raised his ceremonial spear (which was capped by an ornamental golden flame motif
that would probably be of little use doing anything more that herding leopard goats... baby leopard goats at that) and brought the butt down sharpy, jamming it
into a small hole in the paving. Reaching out he took part of the flame from Toph and used his own chi to strength it before dividing it in two. Ham Ghao and
the other sun warrior flanking the chief reached out and took the flames from his outstretched hands.
Around the paving, the sun warriors spread out into a circle, passing the fire one to another. Alternate members of the tribe retained enough
to spark fiery circles that they held in front of them, while those between them knelt and began to beat upon drums, sending up a simple but evocative beat as
the three sun warriors before Mai and Toph led them to the bottom of the stair.
"Are you afraid, little one?" Ham Ghao asked under his breath as Toph walked past him. Mai winced internally at the thought of Toph
breaking up such a clearly important ceremony to take sudden revenge for the insulting query, but instead of breaking into a destructive earth bending move,
the younger girl seemed to ignore him completely and started to walking up the stairs beside her sister. After months of travel, the taller Mai didn't have
to think about adjusting her pace to Toph's shorter legs.
"That was very mature of you," she said quietly once they were above easy earshot of the sun warriors.
Toph smiled broadly. "Earth benders know all about waiting for the right moment," she said just as quietly. "And that
wasn't the right moment." Unspoken: that moment would come and be damned to any threat at the top of the steps.
Someone less disciplined than Mai would have grinned. This was getting interesting.
As the two stepped from the stair onto the top of the pillar, the drums stopped suddenly. The platform that the pillar created was somewhat
wider than the bridge extending in either direction. Speaking through a huge curved horn - the size of a sungi horn, Mai thought - a booming voice from the
circle of sun warriors announced: "Those who wish to meet the Masters Ran and Shao shall now present their fire."
Toph touched the flames she carried to the cloak she was wearing and the front of the material lit immediately. Mai's eyes went wide and
she snatched the garment off Toph's shoulders, almost tearing it as she yanked it out of the young Avatar's belt.
"I was going to give you it anyway," Toph told her drily and turned to her left, facing along the bridge and holding out what
remained of the fire, drawing upon her chi to restore it to its previous size. She could feel a cave at each end. Presumably the Masters would emerge from the
openings. Mai sighed heavily and held out the bundled garment, fire rising from it, in the opposite direction.
"Sound the call!" roared the chief, clearly audible even without a speaking horn.
Some short distance from the court, a lone sun warrior placed his mouth to a twisted horn, so long that it had to be rested upon the floor,
and sounded it, a deep sound that shook stones from the surfaces of the two peaks either side of the bridge.
"I felt that," Toph growled. Then her eyes went wide. "Oma..." she whispered as she felt something truly massive moving
beneath the two peaks.
"Do I want to know?"
"Whether you want to or not, you're about to find out," Toph told her.
Toph couldn't see the yellow eyes gleamed in warning before one of the Masters emerged but she could easily hear the hissing snarl as a
gigantic red dragon shot out of the cave in front of her, only bending off at the last minute to start circling about the two girls. The dragon was so huge
that even circling so widely that it almost brushed both peaks, it was quite literally chasing its own tail.
There was a second rush of air as another dragon, this one blue, emerged from the other peak and began circling.
"Oh. Dragons."
Toph was momentarily more impressed with her big sister's sang froid than she was by the dragons.
D for Drakensis
You're only young once, but immaturity is forever.